Past Times: 168 lives lost in crashes at Barksdale

1938: Shreveport goes overboard for Wrong-Way Corrigan

4:25 AM,
Aug. 25, 2013

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Written by

John Andrew Prime

Th terrible cost of war, especially in the modern era, was borne home to Times readers in two stories this date in 1945, the last year of World War II.

One story tallied the grim details of what it had cost in terms of human life and airplanes to train crews at Barksdale to take the fight to the enemy.

According to a front page article, training at Barksdale Field between Dec. 7, 1941 and Aug. 14, 1945, when President Harry Truman announced the Japanese had surrendered unconditionally, was 168 crew members, in 127 accidents, most in the speedy and nimble, but tricky, B-26 bombers for which the base was ...